A North Carolina woman has a warning for other pet owners after two of her dogs died from eating poisonous mushrooms in her yard.

Advertisement

WRAL reports the dogs belonged to Janna Joyner, who worked for a Wake County nonprofit that helps foster dogs. She also had six of her own dogs.

"Her pack was incredibly tight, and she loved every one of them," said Joyner's friend, Nicole Kincaid.

On Sunday, Joyner came home to find Drago, a 3-year-old Saint Bernard, and Adoni, an 8-year-old lab retriever mix, dead. Her four other dogs were stumbling and vomiting.

Joyner told WRAL that her dogs were like her children.

"Adoni was her first baby. She adopted him from Wake County Animal Shelter. Drago was a foster of hers. We call it a ‘foster fail’ when they don't adopt the dog out and they keep it for themselves," Kincaid said.

Joyner took her dogs to the hospital where blood tests showed traces of Amatoxin, a toxin found in poisonous mushrooms.

“The really toxic ones are called Amanita mushrooms,” said David Dorman, a toxicology professor at N.C. State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Amanita mushrooms, nicknamed Death Cap or Death Angel, can cause liver failure. There is no available antidote, but owners who see their dogs eating mushrooms should rush them to the vet, where vomiting can be induced.

“A dog that consumes those mushrooms can go from healthy to very clinically sick to dead within 24 to 48 hours. So it’s a very rapid disease syndrome,” said Dorman.

Since the mushrooms can vary in size and color, Dorman recommends getting rid of all of the mushrooms in your yard.

“(It’s) always best to cut them, bag them and throw them away. And then wash your hands yourself so you don’t get exposed,” he said.

Joyner and Kincaid hope people will hear her tragic story and possibly save their own pets.

“She didn’t know they were there, they were under the mulch. It’s just scary to know how close it was to home and how it can happen to any dog,” said Kincaid. “That’s what we’re really hoping, that we can educate people.”